The performance race is on as AMD’s recently leaked review guide revealed the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D to be 5-6% faster than the Intel Core i9-13900K.
Confidential data leaked HDTechnology (opens in a new tab) and reported by VideoCardz (opens in a new tab), shows how well the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X3D Zen4 equipped with extended L3 cache performs compared to the 13th generation Intel processor. According to the data mentioned, the 7950X3D is 5.6% faster in games based on games like Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Borderlands 3, Cyperpunk 2077, Dirt 5 and others played at 1080p.
AMD tested the Ryzen 9 7950X3D using two graphics cards, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and the Nvidia RTX 4090, with two systems equipped with two 16GB DDR5-6000 memory. When using the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, the difference between the two processors is 5.6%. This difference increases to 6% when using the Nvidia RTX 4090.
The new AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D model was also compared to the original model, the 7950X, without the additional cache, and tests showed that the new 3D V-Cache processor is up to 16% faster than the original version.
AMD uses world-class bait, but will buyers bite?
Team Red is heating things up with what appears to be AMD’s best CPU performance compared to Team Blue’s current lineup. However, the crux of the matter is whether gamers are willing to spend more money on performance gains.
Currently Ryzen 9 7950X3D is priced at $699 on launch day, while the Core i9-13900K can be purchased for around $589 (with Amazon (opens in a new tab) currently charges $569.99). That’s a pretty big difference in cost. And while there is a noticeable performance improvement, it’s hard to justify spending over $100 more for about a 6% difference.
It’s also no secret that PC gaming hasn’t even fully caught up with the specs of the previous generation, let alone everything this generation has to offer. In addition, for gamers, buying the latest processor is really intended prevent performance bottlenecks unless you are playing real time strategy. When it comes to creatives and employees, cheaper processors are fine.
We’ll see if sales figures prove buyers will invest in any performance upgrades or if there’s a limit to those generous pockets.